Spoons and forks

The house my nan lived in until I was about 10 had gas light. A front parlour and dining room either side of the hall. At the end of the hall was the kitchen, which was the room she spent the most time in. This is where the TV was and had nothing resembling a "kitchen" in it the sink and cooker etc being in the scullery.

And the "loo" being in the back garden

Perhaps a dessert fork is not essential. I think we have to be grateful if our grandchildren can use their cutlery properly. A lot of young families eat with their fingers in front of the television and are unable to use cutlery in the right way.
I read a while back that young school children are having to be taught how to hold cutlery when eating school meals!

nina, both my grannies had huge 'kitchens' and minute sculleries behind in which cooking and washing up took place. On granny has a wash-house but by the time I knew her, it was used as a general storage place or bikes etc. The other one had a range of out-houses one of which was known as the pram house and another was - maybe had been - the coach house! There was a place for storing the apples from all her many trees.

Oh, you've just reminded me of my granny's wash-house, Annobel!
She kept the dolly-tub and the mangle in there - did a weekly wash every Monday! I don't remember her ever getting a proper washing machine.

Greatnan At one time I used to collect knife rests – small stands, often made of silver, for resting your used knife on until the next course was served. I would guess, therefore, that having more than one table knife at any one meal was not always common in the UK.

My nana's mangle was in the back kitchen. When my brother first noticed it, aged about 5, he thought it was a brilliant invention..we'd been living in E Africa where everything dried quickly in the sunshine with minimum of wringing!
p.s. at the back of the back kitchen was a walk in pantry with a big marble shelf and a mesh fronted, wall mounted cupboard!

My granny's pantry was under the stairs, with mesh at the window, marble slab and other shelves. She didn't get a fridge until about the 60s, and even then grumbled that she didn't really need one!

My paternal granny had a big old pre-war fridge that lived in the back of a storage area behind the kitchen. It made a lot of strange rumbling noises but we learned to ignore them. It had a freezing compartment in which ice cream was occasionally made for a treat, to be eaten with fresh berries from the garden. Maternal granny had a meat safe and a marble slab.

We had a cellar, and the stairs down to it, off the kitchen, had shelves, and that was the larder. But the cellars were excellent for keeping things cool.